East Carolina Baseball Notebook (Weekly Recap)
May 17, 2010 | Baseball
May 17, 2010
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina baseball team claimed its fourth Conference USA series over the weekend taking two of three games from UCF at Jay Bergman Field. Zach Woods (6.1 IP, 8 Ks) recorded his second win of the week, while fellow classmates Seth Maness posted his league-leading ninth win and Seth Simmons notched his ninth save. The Pirates are sitting in fifth place heading into the final weekend of Conference USA action where they will play host to Houston, May 20-22.
May 17 East Carolina Baseball Notebook
National Rankings: (as of May 10, 2010)
NR - ESPN/USA Today
NR - NCBW
NR - Ping!Baseball
NR - Rivals.com
NR - Baseball America
Current Streak: L-1
Last Week: 3-1
May 11 Win at Elon, 7-4
May 14 Win at UCF, 11-6
May 15 Win at UCF, 7-5
May 16 Loss at UCF, 14-7 (7 inn.)
Upcoming Week:
Home vs. James Madison (May 18)
Home vs. Houston (May 20-22)
Pirate Hitter-of-the-Week
Jared Avchen, C, Senior
Avchen batted a team-best .583 (7-for-12) over ECU's 3-1 week ... Hit two home runs against UCF and collected a team-best eight RBI over the weekend ... Drove in a career-best five runs in the opening game against UCF and was 3-for-4 at the dish ... Collected a pair of three-hit games at UCF ... Posted a pair of multi-RBI games vs. UCF ... Also led the team with a 1.250 slugging percentage and a .571 on-base percentage ... In game one homered, had a sac fly, RBI single to left center and a two-RBI single to up the middle driving in the Pirates final two runs ... Roped a two-RBI double in first at-bat in game two and closed out with a single and another double ... Drove in the Pirates lone run on Sunday with a solo home run in the fifth inning ... Raised his batting average 33 points to .298 over the weekend.
Pirate Pitcher-of-the-Week
Zach Woods, RHP, Junior
Woods picked up a pair of wins in two starts this weekend to improve his overall record to 8-3 ... Recorded seventh win of the season against in-state foe Elon during midweek action in a spot start during a staff outing ... Tossed an inning of shutout ball with one strikeout ... Notched second win of the week in the series opener against UCF in the Pirates 11-6 victory ... Worked 6.1 innings allowing three runs (all earned) on eight hits with eight strikeouts and four walks (one intentional) in his sixth quality start of the year ... Fanned at least one batter from the second inning to the seventh including punching out two hitters in the second and fifth innings ... With the bases loaded and one out in the first made a off balance diving underhand toss to Avchen at the plate to stifle a UCF rally ... Recorded five fly outs and five ground outs ... Ranks second on the team with eight wins, while leading the squad with 90 strikeouts in 77.1 innings.
PIRATE NOTES:
Seth Maness picked up his league-leading ninth win against UCF over the weekend ... Maness (9-3) worked seven strong innings allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits with four strikeouts ... The junior right-hander improved to 27-8 for his career and 17-3 all-time against Conference USA members ... With the victory he moved into a tie for fourth place all-time in the Conference USA annuals and sixth place on ECU's charts ... The win was also his league-leading fifth in C-USA action ... Earlier in the week he recorded his third career save helping preserve ECU's win against in-state foe Elon ... On the season he boasts a 4.40 ERA in 15 appearances (13 starts) with 78 strikeouts to just 15 walks.
Closer Seth Simmons notched his ninth save of the season against UCF (5/15) which is tied for the league lead with Austin Coan (Marshall) ... The right-hander made two appearances on the week working 2.0 IP where he allowed one run (earned) on three hits with one strikeout ... His save at UCF moved him within four of setting ECU's all-time record (23 by Cory Scott, 1999-00) ... He also jumped into a tie for ninth place on C-USA's all-time saves list ... Simmons owns a 2-3 record in 25 appearances while sporting a 4.04 ERA ... He has fanned 38 batters, while walking 19 in 35.2 innings pitched.
Trent Whitehead had an impressive week batting .526 (10-for-19) with two home runs, a double, five RBI and four runs scored ... Recorded a trio of three-hit games on the week and currently owns a four-game hit streak ... Homered to lead off the game against Elon and followed that with a solo home run in game one of the UCF series in the fifth frame ... Drove in three runs at Elon and two vs. UCF on Friday night ... His single up the middle in the fourth inning of game one at UCF was the 200th base hit of his career ... Currently he is batting .338 (73-for-216) with four home runs, 29 RBI and 50 runs scored ... He shares the team lead in stolen bases (14) with fellow classmate Cam Freeman.
Despite hitting .111 (1-for-9) on the week, Roller had a stellar week at the plate drawing two walks and was hit five times ... Against Elon he roped a single down the right field line in the fourth inning that proved to be the game-winning RBI ... Was hit a school-record four times in the first game of the UCF series ... Then was plunked in his second at-bat in game two ... Roller set the single-season record in walks (54) against Elon and now has 133 for his career, 19 away from setting the all-time record (151/Ryan Wood) ... On the season he has reached base safely in 49 of 51 games ... 78 times he has reached base without getting a hit (54/BB, 21/HBP) ... He owns the teams second-best batting average .345 (57-for-164) while also ranking second in home runs 10 ... His 54 walks and amazing .550 on-base percentage ranks him among the top-5 nationally.
Offensively the Pirates batted .338 (47-for-149) on the week with five home runs and 10 doubles ... Of their 26 runs, 16 were scored with two outs (61.5 percent) and all seven runs in game two vs. UCF came with two men out ... As a team the Pirates cracked into the top-10 in home runs (68), RBI (380) and runs (415) ... On the season ECU has scored 176 of its 415 runs with two outs, which accounts for 42.4 percent of its runs.
Head Coach Billy Godwin recorded his 191st win as the Pirates skipper in ECU's series clinching win over UCF ... He owns a 191-112 record at ECU and 454-197 in 11 years of coaching ... Godwin is 22 wins away from passing ECU Hall of Famer, Keith LeClair (212-96-1), for second place all-time.
